Post by ayoungspirit on Aug 18, 2013 8:49:49 GMT -5
peppergirl : interesting suggestion, politics seems to be one of the domains most easily connected with the MBTI stereotype of ENTJ, but I fear that it would potentially raise some polemics in an initiative otherwise conceive as a diplomatic bridge between communities.
Last Edit: Nov 2, 2014 10:41:58 GMT -5 by ayoungspirit
ayoungspirit I thought about it but unfortunately MBTIers tend to consider Te-leads in general as hard "bulldozing" people.. It's hard to find a sterotypical EXTJ well liked by people. As I already said there's Madonna, or we could find an active philanthropic figure like... I don't know
People who follow MBTI follow it either because they are aware of the fact that the descriptions of the archetypes do correspond to reality with some degree of accuracy or because they believe that not only the archetypes themselves exist but also the cognitive functions underlying the different styles of these archetypes exist, creating different sub-types (if you will call them that). Presenting these two categories as the only two mindsets of those who support MBTI, would be oversimplifying the matter. However, these perspectives are the most common of those who follow it. That being so, I will now branch off into explaining what these people need to see in order to have them believe that CognitiveType is what they want to be delving into.
MBTI and why it isn't complete
People and their intuitions are right about the 16 personality types being somewhat correspondent with reality. However, the types themselves are but 16 branches, each of which are of 16 different trees. Seeds grow into trees and the seeds, in this case, happen to represent the 16 different cognitive hierarchies and for every branch of a given tree a description highlighting different traits can be made. This is why everyone can't fit into one of MBTI's 16 different types. There may be 16 different cognitive hierarchies, but this doesn't imply that there must be only 16 different manifestations of the hierarchies. Assuming that there must be 16 types because the eight cognitive functions can be arranged into hierarchies of four in sixteen different ways makes sense, theoretically speaking, but the descriptions fail to represent the whole truth.
Consequently, MBTI practitioners specialize at attempting to identify the correspondent seed given only one branch of the many possible branches. Unfortunately for them, it is not that simple. Given the fact that a branch from one tree can be similar in size, shape, and texture as another branch from another tree, one can only imagine the difficulty of placing the traits of one branch into a box, despite the dissimilarities simply in the interest of coming to a conclusion. This is what happens. The evidence suggesting that there is no perfect fit is thrown out in favor of the evidence that helps to come to a conclusion.
We do it too though. When we take a test or skim through the descriptions to find out which of the 16 branches we identify with, we ignore the things we don't want to acknowledge as true or the things that don't help us to find the right one. But we all know what this is... it's confirmation bias.
So what do we have here? People who can type themselves with little to no accuracy and people who can type others with slightly higher accuracy that the former. the majority of mistypes are due to confirmation bias or because the system is not showing the full picture. And even if it were possible to show every branch that could possibly develop from a certain seed, we would have not only a problem sifting through all of them to type an individual, but also the problem of too many types. It's better to try and identify the seed from the trunk. The trunk underlies the branches and is beneath the persona, while still being above the surface. It is visible, but discrete and doesn't normally attract much attention. However, it maintains that to know more about a given tree the trunk must be examined. The trunk manifests itself as the cues, gestures, and attitudes a person demonstrates as they interact with the world.
What people need to see
Yes, they need to see that what is missing exists, but more importantly they need to see what is missing side by side with what they know to be paragons of the 16 branches. People need to be shown that the cues, vibes, and gestures from one paragon matches with what they had considered to be a different type continuously. They know that people like Chris Tucker and Michael Jackson exist as real examples of ESTP and ISFP, so show them people who are SeTi and FiSe in totally different positions than them. Show them SeTi and FiSe as politicians, scientist, mathematicians, businessmen, and accounts. Paint the picture and break the stereotypes. Slap them in face with the neglected branches.